Crack in SPS: Ruzic Refuses Rally, Glisic Hits Back
While Ivica Dacic confirmed the Socialists would attend the ruling coalition's June 27 rally, SPS deputy leader Branko Ruzic publicly refused, and the SNS replied he had no place there.
- SPS deputy leader Branko Ruzic announced on June 24 that he would not attend the ruling coalition's rally on June 27.
- Party leader Ivica Dacic confirmed the Socialists would attend and urged members to turn out.
- Minister and SNS executive board chief Darko Glisic replied that Ruzic had no place there.
- Coalition leaders were joined by Rasim Ljajic, who said his SDPS members would attend.
Branko Ruzic, deputy leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia, announced on June 24 that he would not attend the ruling coalition’s rally scheduled for June 27, publicly breaking with his own party’s line. The split became open the same day when SPS leader Ivica Dacic confirmed the Socialists would attend, prompting a sharp response from the Serbian Progressive Party. It is the first visible fracture within the leadership of the ruling coalition ahead of a gathering the government bills as a show of unity.
In his explanation, Ruzic said that he, and the great majority of justice-minded citizens of Serbia, certainly had no place there. He set out a series of conditions he considers unmet: the rule of law, the independence of institutions, zero tolerance for corruption, media freedoms and fair elections. With that, he turned his refusal into a matter of principle rather than a simple absence from one political gathering.
Dacic took the opposite stance. The SPS leader called on members and voters to turn out in order, as he put it, to defend national and state interests. That produced a situation within the same party in which the leader urges attendance while the deputy leader publicly refuses to appear, a rare sight in the disciplined coalition arithmetic of recent years.
Why does Ruzic’s refusal matter to the coalition?
The reply came from the SNS. Darko Glisic, a minister and chairman of the party’s executive board, said that those invited were people interested in Serbia’s future, not those who would tear it down, and that Ruzic had no place there. With that, the dispute between the two officials grew into a public exchange of messages between governing partners, not merely an internal disagreement inside the SPS.
For a coalition that has presented itself as a monolithic bloc for years, open disagreement at the level of party leadership is not just a protocol detail. It raises the question of how firm the unity the rally is meant to display really is, and whether Ruzic’s move is isolated or a sign of a wider rift among the Socialists. As of this writing, the SPS leadership had not produced a single position reconciling the two messages.
Who is attending the June 27 rally?
The guest list is already partly known. Alongside Dacic and the core gathered around the SNS, attendance was confirmed by Rasim Ljajic, leader of the Social Democratic Party of Serbia, who said his members would certainly come. The rally is thus shaping up as a gathering of the broader coalition structure, with one noticeable gap where the Socialists’ unanimity had been expected.
The political calendar adds weight to the event. Any crack in the coalition ahead of an election cycle takes on added significance, since internal party relations are then read as a signal of who stays and who leaves. It remains to be seen whether Ruzic will hold to his decision through June 27 and how the rest of the party leadership will respond.
Does this public disagreement at the top of the ruling coalition point to a more serious split, or is it a one-off move the government will quickly close over?
